Creating a visible online presence is critical for all businesses today. This is especially the case for companies that put their time and resources into creating and distributing digital content.

However, simply creating fresh content isn’t enough to gain more website traffic. Businesses also need to start thinking more strategically about the overall format of the information they produce and ensuring it’s relevant to their target audience.

In the past, companies could see gains in their organic web traffic simply by being more active in their content development approach. But the marketing landscape has shifted considerably over the years and modern consumers (and search engines) require more from the brands.

Video content has become a preferred method of absorbing new information due to its efficiency and ability to be absorbed by a wider range of audiences. Although more brands are making use of this content medium to become more relevant to their visitors, though, being able to optimize videos for higher rankings in search engines requires some additional efforts.

The Importance of Applying SEO to Your Videos

While many people think that SEO strategies can only be applied to the written content available on a website or blog, the reality is that videos themselves can also be optimized for better search visibility.

Video SEO strategies are structured in a similar way to traditional optimization techniques, but there are also a few extra things to consider. The video’s production quality, how fast it can load when hosted on a website, and other factors are relevant to the video performance are all elements that come into play when trying to get more eyes and ears on the content.

However, one of the challenges companies are constantly faced with is that, by design, search engine algorithms are built to try and understand written text. This means businesses need to get creative when trying to make their videos “readable” to search engines.

Supporting Your Video Rankings With Additional Context

Since search engines can’t “watch” videos like typical users, they’re limited to any context they can find related to videos being posted. While this may seem like a difficult obstacle to get past, there are strategies you can use to add more context to your video.

For example, by adding written elements to your videos like transcriptions or captions, you’re able to provide written reference points that search algorithms can use to help establish relevancy.

The transcripts you create can be included on the same page you host the video on to add some more accessibility features to your website, and any closed captions you create will be saved as separate text files. These text files can also be crawled by search engines to further improve your video’s SEO.

Optimizing Videos for Searchability

Taking time to add content snippets in support of your videos is an important step, but it’s not the only way to help them rank in search engines. You’ll also want to make sure you’re hosting your video on the most applicable pages to ensure they’re perceived as more relevant to a user’s search intent.

It’s also important to consider where your videos will get the most engagement from viewers. Consider placing videos above the fold on various landing pages. Most viewers will want to quickly sample the content of a webpage by viewing a quick video rather than needing to scroll through endless text before reaching it.

Developing an Effective SEO Workflow

Tackling different SEO activities can be an overwhelming process for many businesses, especially when they have an extensive company website with various digital assets. However, by developing an SEO workflow, addressing all of the important factors that help content to rank higher in search engines is much more achievable.

By creating an SEO workflow, you’re able to keep everyone accountable for achieving all of your SEO initiatives while helping to keep project timelines intact.

Why Should You Take the Time to Design an SEO Workflow?

Once you start creating your videos, you want to be able to balance the ability to create high-quality content while also helping it become more discoverable. To help to establish this important balance, an SEO workflow can ensure your team gets everything done the way they should.

No different than how a project manager will break down a primary objective into several tasks and subtasks, SEO workflows help to create the same level of organization and accountability, but in relation to helping you finish important marketing tasks for your videos.

SEO workflows help to provide a bird’s-eye view of the progress of different stages in your video production and distribution pipeline while ensuring all the work being completed is done to maximize online visibility.

Designing Your Own SEO Workflow

When you’re reading to start designing your own SEO workflows, below are some of the key elements you’ll want to make sure you incorporate:

1. Set Clear Objectives

Having a well-defined SEO workflow can help to add more direction to your SEO efforts. This all begins by taking the time to document the clear objectives you have in place and making sure everyone involved in the process understands the part they have to play in helping achieve them.

When you have your objectives clear in mind, it’s easier to identify and isolate any areas that may require additional time and resources to manage. It also ensures everyone on your team continues to work toward the same goals when planning and executing various SEO initiatives.

2. Create the Right Structure

Part of achieving all of the objectives you’ve outlined when creating your SEO workflow is to support it with an optimal working structure. This means breaking down larger, more complex elements of your projects into more manageable subtasks.

The goal here is to establish important milestones that your team can strive to hit while providing the business with insights into how on or off tasks the organization is completing its overarching objectives.

3. Assign Team Members Responsibilities

Since most SEO workflows will require more than one person’s or team’s efforts, it’s important to ensure that all necessary team members have their own responsibilities assigned to them.

When you add transparency to all levels of your workflows, it ensures all team members have visibility of where others are in the process. This helps to streamline communication between teams and gives everyone a feeling of shared accountability over the process.

4. Set Important Benchmarks

Understanding your competitors is another important part of creating your SEO workflows. By benchmarking competitor performance when ranking videos, you’re able to uncover valuable information about where you should prioritize your SEO efforts to see the best returns on your efforts.

You’ll want to analyze the type of video formats your competition is creating and any additional content they’re using to support it. This will help you to see what’s working and what isn’t when it comes to search rankings.

Give Your Videos The Visibility Boost They Need

Video content can be a great way to add more user engagement to your website. But in order for your videos to get the attention they deserve, you’ll want to take the necessary steps to optimize them for search engine visibility.

By following the strategies discussed, you’ll be able to implement a well-structured SEO workflow that balances both the quality and search optimization of your video content to increase your views and continue to rank higher on search engine results pages.





Author Bio

Jason Khoo started freelancing in SEO in college, sold his first agency, and now is the founder of Zupo, an Orange County-based SEO consulting agency helping construct powerful long-term SEO strategies for our clients. Jason also enjoys multiple cups of tea daily, hiding away on weekends, catching up on reading, and rewatching The Simpsons for the 20th time.